Sunday Suppa: trans fat free

Once again I skipped out on the new recipe bit and decided to go for a classic. I knew I would be needing comfort food with a new temp job commencing the next day and more importantly after the stress of putting the final touches on my wedding invitations.

I love my Italian food. I cannot wait to someday travel to Italy where I can drink wine and eat delicious food followed by a nap outside in some olive grove. Unfortunately, that time is not anywhere near now. Instead, I eat my good Americanized Lasagna as quickly as possible. Someday I will join and relish in the slow food movement.

My night was not completely lost to invitations and barely tasting my dinner. We made a warm batch of brownies from a box. Fear not, the box was carefully selected to be trans fat free and the brownies were made from an egg from a chicken raised in a certified humane way.

I ate my warm brownie with a bowl of vanilla ice cream. Sundays are not the healthiest days of my week, but it makes all my impending exercise seem so worth it.

Sunday Suppa: forget manners

I may be stuck in a ‘what’s for dinner’ rut that only exists on Sundays, which is the day that I am supposed to dazzle you with my cookery. Instead I gave into fulfilling my desired cravings of roast chicken.

Roasting and eating a chicken with two people is the only way to eat chicken. You never have to be polite about not taking too much of one part of the chicken and by the time you get to second servings you get to pick at the chicken with your fork. The best part is that when I make gravy I get to dip my chicken or seconds mashed potatoes directly into the bowl of gravy.  So long flat belly.  Welcome cellulite.

What? Manners? Not in my home of two.

Sunday Suppa: Easter = ham not bunnies

For the past several Easter holidays I have consumed all the ham I can handle for a year on Easter. As part of a young couple without children and with family within 30 minutes, holidays tend to bring on the travel and multiple meals. It has definitely taken some adjusting in my twenties to not awaken to my mother’s beautiful Easter baskets with chocolate bunnies and other goodies. Instead it is all about the ham.

For breakfast we attended the annual breakfast at Mike’s grandmother’s senior housing. Every Easter she reserves the community kitchen and activity space for the large family gathering. Mike’s uncle poaches eggs in maple syrup and then there is ham, which is served plain and simple. It is definitely a meat and potatoes breakfast without the potatoes or any sort of vegetable or fruit. I tried Sweet and Low in my coffee for the first time as the regular sugar was gone. I do not recommend Sweet and Low AT ALL. Clearly, this was my punishment for not being Catholic nor taking part in Lent.

After breakfast it was off to my mother’s house for a late lunch. She had mentioned that she was going to do an unconventional Easter. I was slightly worried about this. Lately, she has been on a fish binge and I dislike fish, which she knows however my family has this nice way of ignoring my dislikes. When we arrived she had decided that the ham Easter dinner would do just fine. We had ham cooked with a fruit mixture, carrots cooked with maple syrup, asparagus, and potatoes baked in a cast iron skillet over the coals from my mother’s spring burn pile. Of course she had also made deviled eggs with eggs fresh from a local farm. For dessert she served up huge pieces of her cheesecake which we enjoyed outside in the rare Vermont Easter sunshine.

I am unsure about this newish ham fest that is called Easter. I miss the chocolate bunnies and I want bubbles and a pink jump rope. I might go and find a discount aisle somewhere just so I can have a little Easter redemption to balance out all this ham.

Sunday Suppa: lemon bar dessert

I was feeling uninventive and indecisive before grocery shopping this morning so I decided that instead of boring you with my chicken parmigiano covered in gooey mozzarella cheese that I would try Ina Garten's lemon bar recipe. I am convinced that I cannot bake very well. My apple pies never turn out as beautiful as my mothers and always need to be a little bit firmer even though I follow my mother’s recipe as close to exactly as I can get. I am terrified of overcooking and undercooking dessert.

In my search for dinner ideas this week I came upon the lemon bar recipe and was reunited with a lemon sweet craving I have had since last summer. I had little faith in myself to pull of lemon cheese cake. This bar recipe looked simple enough and I had almost all the ingredients minus the lemons and eggs.

I need to watch someone bake and follow along. I made the crust first wondering if my problem is not that I cannot make the crust, but that I have little patience to make the crust look nice in the pan. I was pressing and spreading the crust out in the pan and I got anxious. Is this thick enough, high enough, smooth enough? I knew it tasted good after I sampled the buttery goodness.

The filling was super easy. I waited to add the eggs with the lemon juice until I was ready to mix. I wasn’t sure if the acid would affect the protein in the eggs in some weird way or not if I let them sit together while dumping in the other ingredients. Of course when I poured the filling on the crust, my crust was thick enough, not high enough, and the smoothness really did not matter. I felt glad that Mike is always thoughtful and thankful when trying anything I make.

I try my hardest to let bake things cool and I think I got pretty close this time when I cut into the warm lemon bars. I took the corner piece that I had made unpretty in my cutting and gave Mike the nice piece. They were good. I slowly ate my piece enjoying the mixture of tart and sweet. Mike hovered the bar.

Was it that bad or was it that good?

I might have to have another one.

Now if only I could make it perfectly delicious...

Sunday Suppa: soup bliss

This Sunday it was time for a little Why-the-Chicken-Crossed-the-Road Santa Fe-Tastic Tortilla Soup to fight the new onset of blahs which occurs to us Vermonters after surviving a winter, getting a peak of spring, and then having the cold grayness set in again.

I love this soup. It is especially great in the summer when no modifications have to be made. Since corn is not in season we substitute the frozen stuff, which is definitely not the same as corn on the cob cooked to perfection on the grill. Mmmm corn, butter, some salt. I miss summer. We also end up not grilling the red pepper like we do in the summer and instead sauté it with the rest of the vegetables. Even with a few changes the soup is still delicious and easy to make.

While cooking the soup we always dive into the blue tortilla chips beforehand along with Cabot Hunter Sharp cheddar cheese. We love and eat cheese like it could be our last time ever to eat cheese. It is probably good that it is just the two of us or else we might get a little territorially over our cheese.

With this soup we leave it up to each other to decide how much tortilla we want by adding the tortilla chips to our individual bowls. This is especially tasty as it allows you to enjoy a crunch in the beginning and then quickly the softer sweeter flavorings from the chips as they breakdown in the soup. I like to add sour cream directly to my soup bowl, but Mike prefers to scoop sour cream up on his tortilla chip and then dip it into his bowl. We make this soup into finger food which of course makes it fun to eat.

With this suppa our bellies are full and satisfied. Though, I am still wishing for our summer weather. Mmmm corn on the cob; fresh sliced tomatoes; cheese; my cheese.

Sunday Suppa: getting our Irish on?

For several years now my fiancé and I have enjoyed eating yummy and frequently new recipes together on Sunday. I have had more time on Sundays to make a longer meal and it always leaves plenty of leftovers so on Monday nights we could always sit on our asses and relax. I’ve decided to dedicate Sunday blogs to our Sunday Suppas.

Today I decided it would be a good idea to try something a little Irish as a nod to St. Patrick’s Day this week. I’m sorry corned beef lovers, I did not choose to make corned beef as honestly I’m not even sure what it includes. I searched the web for the obvious and came across a recipe for Soda Bread, which I have also never had, and Beef and Guinness Stew. Stews I can totally rock out on; baking, well, I’m still practicing.

The process of creating the Soda Bread went as expected except thankfully my cat didn’t do his usual jumping on the floured counter spreading his lovely hair protein on everything. As soon as I started to knead the bread I knew that this was not going to be as pretty looking as it should be. I popped the knurly bread into the oven anyways as I dislike wasting food and with the thought that maybe it would taste better than the way I have made it look. The bread ended up being very dense. It tasted ok and was suitable for soaking up stew juices however, there was plenty leftover and it will stay that way.

I modified the stew recipe by adding baby potatoes and some beef broth. The stew turned out as it should, but the flavor was really subtle. It definitely did not have the POW that stews with wine can have. While sipping the Guinness beer we decided that this was not a super flavorful beer and that maybe using a different dark beer such as a chocolate stout might have amped up the stew a little more.

I was trying to create a festive Irish mood, but tonight’s dinner just didn’t do it. I am looking more forward to turning our milk green and setting up an elaborate booby trap to try to catch a leprechaun. Traditions must live on!  Stay tuned.